1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fabric and a method of making the fabric. More specifically, the present invention relates to a fabric that is made to regulate moisture dispersal therethrough to enhance its ability to provide evaporative cooling or retained cooling. Even more specifically, the present invention relates to a fabric that becomes cool when activated by liquid and remains cool for an extended period of time thereafter, and a method of making the same fabric.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Although everyone enjoys a warm sunny day, there are times when the outside temperature is too hot to be enjoyable. At such times, some people choose to remain in, or retreat to, their air-conditioned homes or offices to avoid or escape the heat. These solutions, however, are impractical to those who must remain outside, such as a highway worker, for example, and are unsatisfying to those who wish to remain outside, such as an athlete, a theme park patron or beachgoer, for example. Fabric performance will vary depending on climate, humidity, and air flow.
People have adopted a variety of approaches for cooling themselves outdoors. These efforts are largely ineffective and are not completely satisfying. For example, many people who are exposed to oppressive heat cool themselves by soaking one of the many existing fabric materials, such as a cotton facecloth or a towel, for example, in cold water and holding it against their skin. While this technique is effective, it is effective only for a very short period of time, perhaps one minute or so. The downfall of this technique is that the individual's body heat and the ambient temperature rapidly warm the initially cold water to the point that the water is no longer cooling against the skin. The most commonly employed “solution” to this problem, which is to repeatedly saturate the towel or facecloth in cold water as needed, is not satisfying because it requires much effort, and is not practical because it requires the individual to constantly be near a cold water source.
Other mechanisms employed by individuals to cool themselves include the application of ice, alcohol-dipped towels, and of relatively limited availability, cloths including phase change materials. The availability of ice in any given situation may be limited. Its formation can be costly and its ability to conform to most any area of the body is severely limited. Alcohol-dipped towels are not widely used, although they tend to be a focus of professional sports teams' cooling solutions. However, the alcohol is drying to the skin and can lead to rashes and other skin irritations. Phase change materials are chemicals that absorb and transfer heat through changes between solid and liquid state. The chemicals employed for that purpose can be hazardous and ineffective if their carriers are breached.
Presently, there is no effective non-chemical means of thermal regulating the rate of evaporation in a device that can be used to conform with a person's body, such as around the neck, for example. Evaporative cooling is the natural effect of moisture escaping into the atmosphere at will. The ability to regulate the rate of moisture dispersal and create one's personal cooling environment for an expanded period of time in a device, such as a fabric, is desirable. It is also desirable to provide an effective non-chemical means to regulate the temperature of objects, including the body, such as by providing a cooling element, for extended periods of time. Today's therapeutic wraps and compression wraps either include undesirable chemicals to generate a particular temperature condition, such as a cooling effect, they are too stiff when cooled to a low temperature, or they simply do not maintain the desired thermal condition long enough.
A need therefore exists for a convenient, easy-to-use, flexible device, such as a fabric that remains at a desired temperature for an extended period of time when held against an object, that is pliable or malleable enough to be formed to an object, such as around an arm or leg, and a method of making the fabric. A need also exists for moisture management that allows a user to establish a sustained thermal environment with minimal effort and no artificial chemicals to provide the cooling effect.